Governor Eric Greitens has ordered U.S. and Missouri flags at state government buildings in Lafayette County be flown at half-mast Monday.

Jeffery Mason Sanders – Photo courtesy of Missouri Fire Service Funeral Assistance Team

Greitens issued the order to honor Firefighter Jeffery M. Sanders of the Mayview Fire Protection District, who died while on the job.  55-year-old Sanders and 36-year-old Jacob Hayward were struck while extinguishing a blaze on the side of a highway.

First, two vehicles stopped to wait for them to finish their work.  But a third vehicle failed to stop, hitting the car in front of it, causing a chain reaction in which the first vehicle in line struck the two firefighters and pinned them underneath it while it rolled down a steep embankment.  Sanders died while Hayward suffered serious injuries and remains in a Kansas City hospital.

According to the Missouri Fire Service Funeral Assistance Team Facebook page, a procession of firemen payed their respects to Sanders and his family last evening at west-central Missouri’s Odessa High School, which also hosted funeral ceremonies Monday morning.

Burial was in Zion Cemetery, Mayview. Memorials may be made to the Mayview Lions Club or the Mayview Fire Protection District .

Jeff Sanders and his wife Connie were life-long farmers.  She survives him along with numerous other local family members.

Jeff has been involved with the Mayview Lions Club, the Odessa FFA Advisory Board, the Mayview Special Road District, and the Mayview Fire Protection District. Jeff was also treasurer of the Mayview Zion Cemetery Board.

Jeff was born March 31, 1962 in Lexington, Missouri to Samuel John and Ella Mae Mason Sanders.   He married Connie Joyce Howerton in Mayview on August 5, 1984.